We are living in world of fear and uncertainty. The advent of the 9/11 attack in the United States has created this fear and uncertainty. It has led to tougher laws, legislation and law enforcement to ensure that the life of every citizen in our land is not put on the line.
Today, we can see law enforcers ubiquitously. We see police chiefs roaming around and checking all corners of our cities to ensure that our feeling of fear and uncertainty is allayed. In this scenario they play their role as vanguard of the people.
There are times, however, that this is not the case. Due to their exaggerated duty to ensure security as an aftermath of 9/11, police officers tend to do everything to eliminate all crime plaguing the country and the whole world as a whole. The other face of the coin in this new attitude of the police however is police brutality. We often see cases of police brutality on television nowadays. Statistics show that it has risen in recent years.
According to the Department of Justice, cases where police, prison guards and other law enforcers have used excessive force to violate victim’s civil rights have seen an increase over the last seven years. In Chicago alone there were more than 10,000 complaints filed against police officers between 2002 and 2004. However of the said cases of complaints, only 18 led to meaningful disciplinary actions. Further In Milwaukee last year, Frank Jude and Lovell Harris were brutally beaten by three police officers who were not convicted. This led to public outrage in the city.
Going back to Chicago, police brutality initiated by police officers has really become an issue of concern. According to the University of Chicago report entitled “The Chicago Police Department’s Broken System”, police officers in Chicago received more police brutality complaints per police officer than the national average. It is not surprising that the Amnesty International used the high incidence rate of police brutality in Chicago to discredit it as a possible host of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.
Police brutality is only one form of police misconduct. This is serious issue confronting not only Chicago but other cities in the United States. Although it is quite hard to convict police officers for police brutality, getting a good and experience civil rights lawyer might be a key to a successful conviction or disciplinary action for the culprits.
Charlie Prenicolas is a legal researcher who writes informative articles on Illinois civil rights, medical malpractice, and personal injury cases. For more information on reputable Chicago civil right lawyers, kindly visit Dolan Law Offices today.
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